Fill bottles with water (not quite to the top). Add a few drops of food coloring. Put the stem of the carnation in the colored water. Repeat this for all the colors you desire. Display bottles for students to observe. Set up paper, pencils/crayons, and magnifying glasses around bottles to encourage students to write/draw what they are seeing (these pages can be save to make a book with later). As the days go on and the flowers show more colors in their petals, meet with students and talk about what is happening.

Ask them questions such as:

How do you think the petals are changing colors?

What part of the flower is helping them do that?

What can you notice about how much water is in the bottles? Where is it going? ​